Four University of Michigan researchers received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government to scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers.
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U-M researchers Christine Aidala in physics, Joanne Michelle Kahlenberg in Michigan Medicine, Colter Mitchell in the Institute for Social Research and Corinna Schindler in chemistry each earned PECASE awards.
Established in 1996, the PECASE acknowledges the contributions scientists and engineers have made to the advancement of science, technology, education, and mathematics education and to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, and community outreach.
Aidala is an associate professor of physics who works in experimental high-energy nuclear physics, on the border between nuclear and particle physics. Her research is focused on nucleon structure and quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force. She is particularly interested in spin-momentum correlations inside the proton.
“I am honored to be among the recipients. The award is an important recognition of individuals carrying out cutting-edge basic research in the sciences, leading to the technologies of the future and enabling our modern society,” Aidala said.
Kahlenberg is the Giles G. Bole M.D. and Dorothy Mulkey M.D. Research Professor of Rheumatology and associate professor of internal medicine at Michigan Medicine. She is interested in understanding how the immune system is “turned on” to cause patients to get sick from their autoimmunity. Specifically, she is studying how sunlight and other factors act as triggers for skin and systemic disease in patients with autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
“This award is a great honor, and it validates the importance of the work we are doing to help patients with lupus and other autoimmune diseases,” Kahlenberg said. “I hope it also encourages patients to participate in our research studies so that we can keep working to find better treatments for them.”
Mitchell is a research assistant professor of family demography in the Center for Human Growth and Development, and a faculty associate of the Population Studies Center and the Survey Research Center, both in the Institute for Social Research. Mitchell examines how social contextual factors such as poverty, parental incarceration, neighborhood characteristics and family processes interact with and influence genetic, epigenetic and neurodevelopmental measures. He investigates how these biomarkers in turn predict later life health and well being. He also examines methods for novel biomarker data collection in the population-based studies.
“I am deeply honored that the National Institutes of Health, and especially the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, nominated me for the PECASE award,” Mitchell said. “I am extremely indebted to the participants and staff of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and for my incredible colleagues at the Institute for Social Research for enabling me to conduct this interdisciplinary research linking social, biological and health sciences.”
Corinna Schindler is an assistant professor of chemistry. Her research focuses on innovations in modern synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry to examine fundamentally interesting questions of biological importance. Her research includes addressing inflammation in the environment immediately surrounding tumors.
